Pumpkin Spice Cider

Ingredients:
1 gallon Indian Summer apple juice (SG 1.050)
10 oz Langer's frozen apple juice concentrate
1 can (29 oz) Libby's pumpkin puree (NOT pie filling, no added sugar)
US-05 ale yeast

1 campden tablet at 2nd racking time
4 whole cloves
1/2 tsp 'apple pie spice'
1/8 C vodka

1/2 tsp sorbate for stabilizing at the end
3/4 C white sugar for backsweetening

Method: I brewed with the pumpkin pulp in the must. I mixed the first 4 ingredients in a plastic brew bucket with lid/airlock, and pitched the dry yeast straight on top of the must. It fermented until about SG 1.010 in ten days. By this point the pumpkin puree had settled to the bottom. Then I racked to secondary, glass growler. (You should probably top up with fresh apple juice here, although I did not.) Be careful not to upset the pumpkin sludge.

At this point, I added the spices, suspended in vodka, to the secondary. After 4 days, I racked a second time to get rid of the remaining spice/pumpkin sludge. That seemed to be enough time to get the spice flavors. I racked onto 1 campden tablet.

I let it sit in secondary for 3 weeks, and then racked onto 3/4 C sugar and 1/2 tsp sorbate to halt the fermentation and backsweeten. I put the growler in the fridge for good measure, and I will bottle when it clears a bit. It already tastes fantastic though, just the right amount of spice & pumpkin.

Should that be "apple pie spice" or "pumpkin pie spice"?

It's "Tone's Apple Pie Spice." I'm sure you could use pumpkin pie spice instead, it's probably the same spices, with a slightly different ratio.

What do you mean suspend in vodka? I'm fairly new to brewing cider and my wife already said she wants pumpkin cider. She had one the other day called Harpoon and now I have to make one lol. Looking to try this but in 5 gallon batch.

Just started a similar version of this - except instead of adding pumpkin pulp I'm fermenting it in an actual pumpkin....Bumped my OG up to 1.08 and plan on stopping it at 1.02 to preserve a little sweetness. Fingers crossed!

@Skylark Been a looooonnnnng time. Ever make this recipe again? How'd the spices and pumpkin come out? Anybody else whip it up? I have 3 big cans of 100% Pumpkin that's been burning a hole in my pantry.